Grandparents apparently died as they tried to escape flooding home in Staten Island

Having witnessed the destructive power of Hurricane Katrina, Debra Cooper, a Gretna middle school principal, felt uneasy last week as she watched her family back in New York prepare for Hurricane Sandy. But even with the anxiety and ominous TV forecasts, it seemed no one -- including Cooper and her family -- quite expected Sandy to bring such deadly flooding to a place like New York City, where hurricanes rarely strike.

Cooper's grandparents, Walter Colborne, 89, and Marie Colborne, 66, were among the 113 victims who have reportedly died as a result of Hurricane Sandy. Forty-eight victims reportedly have died in New York, making it the hardest-hit state.

"I know my grandfather was older, but to die like this, to die in a hurricane in New York City?" Cooper said. "This just doesn't even seem like it should go together. I must be in a bad nightmare."

Because Cooper's family, like countless others in the Northeast, did not expect the storm to be so dangerous, they accepted their elderly grandparents' plan to ride out the storm in their two-story Staten Island waterfront condo. If the water did end up rising, the couple said, they could just head upstairs.

Debra Cooper on her wedding day with her grandfather, Walter Colborne, who died in Hurricane Sandy.Family photo

Days passed and no one heard from Cooper's grandparents. Power was out and phone lines were down, so the family did not start to truly worry until two days after the storm, on Oct. 31. That day, the family reported the couple missing.

The next day, the couple's bodies were discovered about 50 yards from their home, lying outside of their car. They had apparently drowned after trying to drive out of their flooded gated community. The keys were still in the car's ignition, Cooper said.

When Cooper's family entered the couple's condo, they found sand all over the first floor and marks on the wall showing the water had risen beyond three feet high.

"They must have panicked because the water started to get in," Cooper said.

Losing a loved one in such a way is especially devastating, Cooper said, because of all the questions forever left unanswered.

"Was he suffering? Did she go before him? Were they together when they died -- all those questions I know you're not supposed to think about, but your mind goes there," she said. "Your mind takes you to these horrible places."

Cooper said her grandparents had met each other after both had been widowed. A few years after Cooper's biological grandmother died, her grandfather, Walter Colborne, who owned a BMW dealership, married her step-grandmother, Marie Colborne, who was a middle school science teacher. Throughout their 25 years of marriage, the couple enjoyed traveling together, frequently taking boating trips from New York to Florida, Cooper said.

"They lived a wonderful, wonderful life," she said. "To look at the positive aspects of peoples' lives who were lost -- I think that will get us through."